The mystery of the not Red Rangers

Dixie Rainbow chickens at about 7 weeks

Our mystery is solved.  The not-so-red Red Ranger chickens we ordered ended up being Dixie Rainbows instead.  Whew, what a relief.  Thankfully, Rainbows are a hearty dual purpose bird with good feed conversion and the ability to forage well - all characteristics we noticed in this flock.  They average dressed weight for males is about 5 pounds at 12 weeks.

I would like to give props to Mt Healthy Hatcheries for helping us identify what we actually had and making the mistake right for us.  I recommend doing business with them - they give excellent customer service and go the extra mile to make their customers happy.

Tomorrow is the big day.  We've already picked up the equipment from our local county conservation district and are all set up for dispatching the birds. 

Spraddle leg, prolapses, and broodiness - Oh my!

Getting the red on

Except when getting the white, gray & brown on

Quick Chick Update:  The Red Ranger chicks are growing fast!  They hit the four week old mark on Wednesday and are gaining, on average, 5 oz per week in weight.  We're trying to take weights of 5 chicks every weekend to get an idea of how they're doing.  I'm planning on posting weight averages and fed usage after we get done with this batch. 

As you can see by these pictures, they're really starting to get their feather on - though some are definitely looking less red than others.  They've been a lively and healthy bunch.  Out of the 67 shipped to us, we've only lost 3; one during shipping and two to what I'm calling failure to thrive. 

Shadow enjoying some scratching time

So even though this group of chicks has been healthy overall, we've had to deal with a few chicken related health issues over the past few months, mostly with our hens.  Currently, two of our girls have gone broody which has frankly been a pain in the butt.  We were not quick to catch the signs when Shadow, our young Cuckoo Maran, starting sitting the nest which we have since learned helps tremendously in breaking a broody hen.  A few days after, Julie, a Buff Orpington, also caught the nesting bug and joined Shadow for the long sit.  As we've since learned, broodiness can be "catching," and some hens are more prone to it over their lifetimes.  We did some web research and talked to chicken-keeping friends about what to do.  Probably the best information we found was combing the message boards at Backyard Chickens and then reading this stellar article from the Chicken Chick.  If your broody hens are not sitting fertilized eggs and your goal is not to have them raise chicks, then it really is best to break a broody cycle as soon as you can.  I think we just about have convinced Julie to be done with her broody moody, but Shadow darling is still having none of it and is determined to keep to the nest.  We separated her from the flock for a couple of days and are not closing the hen house up after the other girls have finished their daily laying.

Another issue we've dealt with recently that was seriously NOT fun was a prolapsed oviduct in our other Cuckoo Maran, Blackie.  After some research on the interwebs we were feeling pretty fatalistic about her chances of survival, let alone, successful recovery, but again the Chicken Chick came to the rescue with a really well done discussion on how to deal with this issue.  It took about a week of constant care and lots of sticking of fingers into poor Blackie's nether regions, but we finally had success, and I'm happy to report there has been no relapse of the prolapse.  Knock on wood, fingers crossed.

Spraddle leg

Finally, in the trifecta of recent chicken issues, one of our Red Ranger chicks arrived with both legs seriously splayed, aka spraddle leg.  Unfortunately, we've not had success in correcting this issue on one of the poor little bugger's legs.  As you can see from the picture, the back legs is sticking out at an odd angle and at this point, I have little hope of being able to fix it.  Here is well-done article from PoultryHelp.com that gives step-by-step instructions on how to (hopefully) correct spraddle leg.

With as rewarding as keeping chickens can be, there are definitely issues with which the chicken hobbyist needs to be aware and ready to address.  Having a well stocked chicken first aid kit (electrolytes, bandaids, Vetericyn VF spray, preparation H or witchhazel, pain-killer free antibiotic ointment or spray, vitamins, tweezers and gloves), a willingness to DYT, and reliable sources of information is a must for those times when your feathery friends need some TLC.

What you might (or might not) want to know about your meat

Credit: EWG

Ah, summer time ~ grilling season has arrived!  But what do we really know about the meat we're cooking... and do we really want to know?!?

I'm giving you fair warning - if you get your meat from your local supermarket, you might be sort of grossed out by the following report from the Environmental Working Group.  I know my stomach dropped at the thought all those nasty superbugs coating the cellophane wrapped, styrofoam trayed beef, pork and poultry at the local grocery store meat counter.  Ew!  And folks, we've brought this on ourselves by pumping our factory farmed livestock full of antibiotics because we raise them in crowded, unsanitary conditions.

Superbugs Invade American Supermarkets

Daunting, isn't it?  Makes a happy omnivore consider going full-on vegetarian (and for good reason).  But as a meat-loving consumer, there are things you can do to protect your family and yourself.

• Buy organic and know your labels.
• Find a local source.  This can be a local farmer or a local butcher who uses trustworthy sources.  Our family is fortunate in having a local butcher who raises some of their own product and uses only local, humane farmers for the rest. 
• Raise your own.  This is our favorite choice.
• Read EWG's reports on Tips to Avoid Superbugs in Meat and Meat Buyer's Guide.
• Eat quality meat from quality sources.  Let's face it, the corner fastfood franchise and possibly even the four-star restaurant are more concerned with their bottom line than the quality of their meat source.  You're not likely going to get an organic, grass-fed hamburger from Tasty Tom's Drive-In.

So make smart choices and be a happy, healthy and informed consumer this summer.

Interesting article on grocery store poultry labels

I just read an interesting article on Mark's Daily Apple about consumer labeling of poultry:  What You Should Know About Poultry Production Claims.  Highly recommend giving this a look before your next trip to the grocery store.

Mob 3 Miscellany, Beginning of Week 2

CRX 1 week old, under the brooder

Mob 3 turned 1 week old yesterday, and as of this writing, are still 42 birds strong.  Even our dizzy chick seems to have assimilated and is doing well.  As you can see from the pictures they're growing quickly and putting on feathers.

Notice the beginnings of white feathers on the wing

I wanted to note a few things we do with our chicks that seem to help in terms of lower mortality rates and overall health.  Some of this stuff we picked up from other backyard chicken aficionados or from research or by pure dumb luck.  And while this has worked for us thus far, we certainly can't guarantee we've discovered the magic bullet for successfully raising Cornish Rock Cross.  Honestly I think we've just been incredibly lucky but maybe a few of these tips will be helpful to someone else.

1. Buy your chicks from a reputable hatchery near where you live.  As we've said before, we love Jenks Hatchery in Tangent, Oregon because in our experience, their CRX stock is outstanding - healthy, good feed conversion, smarter than the average CRX - and because they're geographically close.  As we've seen with both Mobs 2 & 3, even one day less transit time makes a huge difference in early mortality rates.  (Mob 1 which had 2 days transit to us had 2 out of 35 chicks die in the first 2 weeks, Mobs 2 & 3 each had 0 out of 42).
2. We use the deep litter method for our nursery. 
3. While in the nursery, we offer water mixed with poultry electrolyte.  This was recommended to use by a chicken farmer as helpful for hydration and for keeping the chicks "regular." 
4. Speaking of regular, we watch for vents getting plugged and clean as needed.  Yep, nothing like wiping a chick's little hind end.
5. As I mentioned in the last post, we don't offer food immediately upon arrival.  We encourage the chicks to hydrate first after their journey to us.
6. We feed them good food.  Spoiled babies.

Patriot Farm Feed

Speaking of good food, here's a picture of the feed we get from Patriot Farm and Bison (left) compared to the bagged crumbles usually found in most feed stores (right).  You can see the actual grains in the Patriot feed versus the dry, hard pressed pellets of the other stuff... in fact, once the chicks get the good stuff, they turn their little beaks up at the other and will let it sit in the trays.  I have a feeling it's a little like eating a gourmet meal compared to cold fast food.

The ladies, taking a rest

Just a quick update on the youngest's hens.  They're growing quickly, feathering out and are in general getting along famously.  The husband, after losing time the previous weekend, is maniacally building the hen house in hopes of reclaiming his garage.  He's using a lot of reclaimed materials including an old pallet for the base and leftover flooring from a bathroom remodel, though he did buy a a sheet of plywood for the roof and floor plus some siding for the walls.  We're hoping to get the whole thing built for about $100.  Once finished the six ladies will have 16 square feet of floor space plus nesting box and perch, maybe a loft area if it seems warranted. Pretty plush digs for our little feathered friends.  

Beginning of hen house

More planning for chickens

Wyandotte hen

For some reason this blog has been getting a lot of traffic from Germany, Latvia & Russia lately.  Go figure.  Assuming there are actual readers on the ends of those hits and not just search bots, I'd like to say a big thank you, danke, paldies and спасибо for reading.  Hopefully nothing is lost in translation.



Oldest has now caught youngest's fevered excitement about raising a backyard flock of egg-layers and wants in on the action.  So in addition to the 40ish Cornish Rock Cross we'll be ordering from Jenks Hatchery, I think the boys have argued, bargained and narrowed down their hen choices to Buff Orpington, Wyandotte & Leghorn.  Their choices are based solely on looks and how friendly the birds are reputed to be ~ I, on the other hand, steered them to the more prolific egg layers and "nicer" chickens.  We don't want any fights in the hen house.  We're going to get four hens, probably from the local feed store or maybe from a local-ish farmer.  I'm stalking Craigslist for possibilities.


Speaking of hen houses, if we were rolling in money, I'd purchase this set-up from Williams-Sonoma.  Nice, huh?  Plus cedar does well in our drippy Pacific NW weather.  But seeing as we don't have an extra $1500 lying around for a chicken coop, we're thinking of building a knock-off version of this, which in all honesty will be no where near as lovely but hopefully will keep our future hens happy.  We'll see.  I like the compactness and lightness of this coop which will make for easy moving about the yard... though since we'll be building it out of reclaimed wood and seeing how heavy the chicken tractor turned out, this maybe be a debatable point.  I'll keep you updated as we build.

Chicken Update

Almost 2 week old chick

Ack, I thought we were supposed to be in the lazy, hazy days of summer, sliding slowly into autumn.  Not so at our house!  We're in a mad frenetic dash leading up to the start of school, and with the husband beginning a new job, it's been more like an out of control free-fall into September.  Thus the absence of blog posts and chicken updates... Really, I do have some amazing topics in the offing just waiting to be crafted into brilliant and witty discussions about the benefits of being gluten-free.  In addition, the husband and I are contemplating eating Whole30, so there's whole 'nother topic of potentially scintillating posts.  We'll see.  I have a feeling this crazy schedule we're currently on may not ease up until well after Christmas.

Anyway, back to my favorite subject, chickens.

The chickens turned two weeks old this past Tuesday and miraculously, we have not lost a single one.  NOT ONE!  43 chicks arrived and 43 chicks happily remain.  Seriously, from our previous experience with Mob 1 and from what we've read about how delicate this breed is, not losing a single chick might truly qualify as a small miracle.  Conventional knowledge among backyard chicken enthusiasts claim the average loss for Cornish Rock cross to be 15%; with Mob 1 we had 5 out of the original 38 die so 13% loss, most in the first 2 weeks.  Seriously, 0% loss is unheard of and has us scratching our heads a bit about what we are doing right.  I'm guessing it's the really healthy chick stock from Jenk's Hatchery, good feed from Patriot Farm, and plain old dumb luck.

At two weeks in, we've entered the gawky adolescent stage where the chicks go around half dressed in their adult feathers and the males bump chests and attempt to crow.  Plus they've developed the voracious eating habits of a teenager and are attempting to eat us out of house and home.  First week they consumed about 22 pounds of feed; the second week we're up to about 42 pounds with a noticeable increase in the last 2 days.  I'm occasionally letting the food trays run out so they get used to not always having food in front of their faces since once they go "out to pasture" they won't have feed available 24/7.  We're also cutting down on feed availability at night.

Feeding frenzy

On a proud mama note, I have to say this group of chicks is smart.  Seriously, we're raising chicken einsteins here.  Cornish Rock cross are famously (or maybe notoriously) known for being dumb... really, really, REALLY dumb.  Because of the intensive breeding for high feed to meat conversion, quick maturity, and larger breasts (I know, that sounds bad, doesn't it?), the breed has lost most of its smarts.  For example, Cornish Rock cross will supposedly not forage on pasture.  You hear stories of bugs that other breeds would snap up in an instant walking across the feet of the CRX, and instead of taking advantage of the mobile snack, the CRX will RUN away in fright (though in the case of a large hairy spider, who can blame them?).  Now after our experience with Mob 1 who happily ate up our lawn, I would take issue with the notion that they can't learn to graze.  In addition, we've seen this new flock enthusiastically fight over a spider that strayed into the nursery and an inchworm we threw in for kicks.  Plus they industriously scratch and dig for food that falls into the liter.  My guess is if they are given the chance to exercise their dormant yet still present natural instincts, they can and will learn to act like normal chickens instead of just mindless eating machines.

Depending on weather, overnight temperatures and feather development, we're hoping to put our little flock out of pasture around week 3.  We'll keep you updated (hopefully).

Chickens, the recap

We're so pleased with how the great chicken raising experiment turned out.  Overall, a very enjoyable experience and since the butchering wasn't too bad we'll be doing it again, maybe as early as the end of this summer. 

Here's our list of things to remember and thoughts for next time:

• We loved Jenks Hatchery and would definitely order from them again.  Their service was outstanding, the chicks arrived in amazing shape and the mortality rate of our mob was very low.  At butchering time we found our birds to be robust with very thick and healthy feathers.  They breed a good product.
• We were satisfied with the Cornish Rock Cross and would choose this bird again.  We got a straight run and while the hens were on average a little smaller, it was not enough to be noticeable.  Jenks also offers monthly hatches of the visually stunning Red Ranger and the Heritage White breeds which would be interesting to try since they are both good foragers and have good feed conversion.  After another flock of Cornish Rock X, my vote would be for the Heritage White.
• The deep liter method for chicks worked really well.  Also loved using a hover brooder as it kept our electrical usage down and provided a very warm and protected environment for the chicks.  It might be worth considering going without warming bulbs if we do another flock at the end of summer, depending on temperature.
• Need to purchase at least one chick feeder and chick waterer bases.
• Remember to use the leftover electrolyte mix with the next flock of chicks, especially if the weather is warm.
• It's been reported that Cornish Rock X do not make good foragers; we did not find this to be the case probably because we trained them to look for food on the ground by scattering feed while they were in nursery (do this again).
• Since we have 30+ birds in the freezer, see if someone would like to go in with us on a chicken order in August.
• The chicken feed we got from Patriot Farm was outstanding.  Next time, we need to actually buy enough.  Our chickens definitely preferred it to the big name pressed crumble-style feed from the local feed store.  Plan at least 10-15 pounds of feed per bird.
• In terms of feeding, next time we'll feed on demand for the first week or so and then go a 12 hours on, 12 hours off feeding cycle.  We fed this first mob way too much to begin with and went through more food then we needed to in the beginning.  It didn't translate into more meat, though it did produce more (expensive) fertilizer. 
• When we set up the chicken tractor next time, it might be good to pull it between the vibrant green tracks from the past flock in an effort to make our lawn less "stripe-y" looking.
• As butchering nears, plan the tractor route to end closer to the proposed butchering site.  Rearrange the butchering stations so they are closer together.  Be sure to have a first aid station available.
• More ice at butchering.  Start setting aside ice early.

Chickens, week 2

Chicks at 1 week old

The chicks officially have reached their second week of life today and so far with good success.  We think we received 39 chicks in our order of 35 from Jenks Hatchery in Tangent, Oregon, but I'm still not swearing by that number.  For being so small, they can move fast and pretty much all look alike.  Out of our original shipment, we've lost three. Two died due to unknown causes, though honestly I would guess it's probably shipping woes and never quite recovering from the indignity of traveling through the mail in a squishy chicken box.  Those two babies never made the transition and were noticeably smaller then there thriving counterparts.  A third chick suffered an injury to a leg and eye (maybe too much love from one of the boys? or a turf war under the brooder?).  I'm finding these little lessons in life and death to be a bit harder than I expected ~ dealing with infant death is not my forte.  The oldest and youngest, on the other hand, are handling these sad events with a lot more forthrightness and understanding than I expected. 

It's amazing how much the chicks grew in only a week's time, and how quickly they are changing from cute little yellow puff balls into more adolescent looking birds with the scraggly beginnings of grown-up feathers on wing and tail.  I'm expecting we only have about a week left of referring to them as "the chicks" and will graduate to calling them "the mob."  We should also soon be able to establish gender.  A few of what I guess are males have been exhibiting some coop posturing, bumping chests and splaying wings in hooligan-like shows of dominance.  Ah, yes, the teenage years are soon upon us!

The hover brooder

Our chick nursery consists of our homemade hover brooder (made from salvaged items) and a penned in area in our garage.  The hover brooder came from an idea suggested on my favorite mothering message board which led us to Robert Plamondon's website and his book, Success With Baby Chicks.  We're also following Plamondon's suggestion of using a deep litter made of pine shavings & chips.  The current plan is to move them out on "the range" (i.e. the backyard) at about 2-3 weeks of age, depending on weather.  The husband is constructing a movable chicken tractor, sort of a knock-off version of the one designed by Joe Salatin of Polyface Farms but with a pitched roof in deference to our cooler, wetter Northwest springs.